» The Brewery Tour Slides
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Adelaide, South Australia, is
one of the country's completely planned capital cities. It is
surrounded by parklands with the Torrens River meandering north
of the city center. It is also the home of the world renowned
Coopers Brewery. Started in 1864 by stone mason, Thomas Cooper,
the Coopers Brewery is Australia’s only family owned and
operated brewery, and is the world’s largest producer
of products for homebrewers as well.

According
to Michael Jackson, in his seminal book The New World Guide
to Beer, the joy in Coopers beers comes from their “heartiness
and uncompromising honesty”. In his follow-up book,
The Beer Companion, Mr. Jackson gives both the Coopers Sparkling
Ale and Coopers Stout a five-star rating.

The entrance to the new brewery.
Come on in!

This is the main lobby. Here
is where you’ll meet Briney and Summer. They are the “dinky
die” front office people of the brewery, and they both
speak fluent “Australian” mate!

As you walk in you are greeted by a vintage Coopers
Brewery delivery truck.

And before there were delivery trucks, there were
Coopers Brewery horse drawn delivery wagons.

Mark Henry and I in front of the co-generation facility at the new brewery. That’s right –
they produce their own power, right on site using domestically
available natural gas. This allows them to power the brewery
and malt extract facility without relying upon more heavily
polluting coal or petroleum fired electricity utilities. And
by using the latest in pollution control technology, they are
able to run the brewery and malt extract facility with minimal
environmental impact.